Russia considered the accusations of targeting a maternity hospital in the city of Mariupol, southern Ukraine, on Wednesday as a "play."

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov confirmed that "Russian aviation did not carry out any mission whatsoever to strike targets on the ground in the Mariupol region," considering that "the supposed air strike is a completely orchestrated play to preserve anti-Russian sentiment in Western public opinion."

In turn, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the hospital was bombed yesterday after the Ukrainian forces took control of its surroundings, and that there were no patients inside.

In response to a question about the bombing during a press conference after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart in Turkey, Lavrov stressed that Western media only present the Ukrainian point of view, adding that the West caused this conflict by forcing Ukraine to choose between it and Russia.

Russia's Deputy Representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, said that his country had previously warned that the hospital had been turned into a military facility by "radicals", adding that it was "very worrying" and that the United Nations was publishing this information without verification.

On Monday, the Russian delegate to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, told the UN Security Council, "We have indicated that the Ukrainian radicals are showing their true face more and more clearly every day. The locals said they expelled the maternity clinic staff and set up a firing position in this clinic."

In response to what UN Secretary-General António Guterres was said to have been using private UN information to confirm its account of the strike, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: "We stand by what we have said."

Guterres had confirmed Wednesday evening that the attack on the Mariupol hospital was "horrific."

Children's Hospital and Maternity Hospital in Mariupol, which was bombed by Russian forces. # Russia_Ukraine


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— Military Affairs (@RUUA_war) March 9, 2022

Ukraine's position

On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today, Thursday, that 3 people, including a child, were killed, and 17 others were wounded, in an air strike yesterday on a maternity and children's hospital in the city of Mariupol.

He continued, in a televised speech, that Russia's assertion that there were no patients in the hospital was incorrect.

"As always, they lie confidently," he added.

The Ukrainian president stressed that "propaganda promoters" on Russian television will be held accountable, accusing Russia of obstructing attempts to establish humanitarian corridors in Mariupol.

Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Lyashko had said that Russian forces had bombed 63 hospitals since the beginning of the war, killing 5 health workers.

Lyashko added that hospitals in areas where there is no bombing are still under his ministry;

And that the ministry has transferred sums of money to these hospitals since the beginning of the war, to purchase the necessary medical materials and medicines, and to pay the salaries of workers.

The representative of the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine Jaime Nadal said that two other maternity hospitals were attacked and destroyed before the bombing of the Mariupol hospital, as the bombing destroyed two hospitals completely in the city of Zhytomyr (northwest) and the city of Kharkiv (northeast).

During a video interview with journalists at the United Nations in New York, Nadal said that there are "69 maternity and antenatal care centers" in Ukraine, noting that the United Nations Population Fund "estimates the number of pregnant women who will give birth in Ukraine in the next three months at 80,000."

The official indicated that there are about 240,000 pregnant women in Ukraine, while 4,311 women have given birth since the start of the invasion on February 24 until the seventh of this month.

Refugees from Mariupol flee to safer areas (Anadolu Agency)

international condemnations

For her part, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday that "the bombing of the Mariupol maternity hospital is an inhumane, cruel and tragic act. I am convinced that this may be a war crime, and therefore we need a full investigation."

International organizations condemned the attack on Mariupol hospital on Wednesday evening. “I am horrified by the attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, which is said to have left young children and women in labor buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings. We do not know yet. The number of victims, but we fear the worst."

She added that the attack confirms, if confirmed, the horrific losses that the war inflicts on Ukraine's children and families, noting the displacement of more than one million children from Ukraine to neighboring countries, and the killing of at least 37 children and the wounding of 50 others, in less than two weeks.

MSF also issued a statement saying, "We are horrified to hear reports that a hospital complex, including a maternity ward, in Mariupol has been bombed. While we cannot confirm that this was a targeted attack, we know from our staff that homes and hospitals were damaged during fighting in the last few days.